Table 2 Error rates, types of errors, and potential clinical impact for the preintervention and intervention periods, by study group
Experimental group | Control group | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TOE | Preintervention period (A) (n = 1235) | Intervention period (B) (n = 2653) | p-value A vs. B (*) | Preintervention period (C) (n = 1211) | Intervention period (D) (n = 3373) | p-value C vs. D (*) | p-value B vs. D (†) |
Number (%) of OE with at least one error | 61 (4.94) | 188 (7.09) | 0.013 | 78 (6.44) | 210 (6.23) | 0.845 | 0.355 |
Total number of errors a | 62 | 191 | 81 | 213 | |||
Types of errors, n (%) | |||||||
Wrong dosage-form error | 18 (29.0) | 76 (39.8) | 0.170 | 17 (21) | 84 (39.4) | 0.004 | 0.851 |
Unauthorized drug error | 9 (14.5) | 34 (17.8) | 0.686 | 5 (6.2) | 28 (13.1) | 0.138 | – |
Omission error | 4 (6.5) | 7 (3.7) | 0.471 | 1 (1.2) | 1 (0.5) | 0.476 | – |
Wrong-dose error | 30 (48.4) | 67 (35.1) | 0.085 | 47 (58.0) | 79 (37.1) | 0.001 | 0.046 |
Wrong administration technique error | 0 (0.0) | 7 (3.7) | 0.199 | 10 (12.3) | 14 (6.6) | 0.169 | – |
Wrong drug-preparation error | 1 (1.6) | 0 (0) | 0.245 | 1 (1.2) | 7 (3.3) | 0.452 | – |
Potential clinical impact of errors, n (%) | |||||||
No clinical impact | 43 (69.4) | 130 (68.1) | 0.974 | 56 (69.1) | 171 (80.3) | 0.060 | – |
Serious or significant clinical impact b | 19 (30.6) | 61 (31.9) | 25 (30.9) | 42 (19.7) | |||